Month: February 2017

These past 2 weeks

Sometimes I wonder if there’s a little time thief in my house that sneaks in when I’m not looking, changes my clocks and stores up the time somehow to use as his own. If so then the sneaky little fiend has been at it again! I had high hopes of getting lots of things done these past 2 weeks, I was going to have lots of lovely crochet to show off but sadly it wasn’t to be. The week before last Little Miss was off kindergarten with Scarlet fever and whilst I had 2 days off with her, as anyone with a child off sick knows, you don’t get a lot done! She wasn’t allowed into kindergarten due to being infectious but she wasn’t poorly enough to want to go to bed or even snuggle up on the settee. No, she wanted me to play! So there was no chance of even getting any work done from home let alone any crafty stuff. I’m sure she passed some of the horrid little bugs on to me too as I was so tired and in bed around 8 every night that week so I suppose it’s no wonder I felt a distinct lack of time.

This week just gone has been half term week here and we went away to Centre Parks in Holland. I eagerly packed a huge bag of wool with the intention of crocheting lots of rows on my granny stripe blanket. With a 2 1/2 hour journey each way I had high hopes of lots of hooky time but the threat of travel sickness decided it wasn’t meant to be. Grr and so after only a few stitches I had to put it away. I did manage to squeeze in about half an hour of crocheting one wet and windy afternoon but certainly not as much as I’d hoped. Never mind, we had a lovely holiday, despite the tail end of hurricane Doris bringing us lots of wind and rain for a couple of the days and most importantly little Miss had an excellent time, often declaring it was ‘the best day ever.’
One day on holiday we decided to brave the drizzle and go for a lovely bike ride. I’m so glad we did, it was one of my favourite things of the holiday. We stopped off part way in a cosy little cafe and there on the wall were these flowery beauties, giving a much needed injection of colour into a dreary day.
(sorry for poor quality photo but it was fairly high up on the wall over the stairs so was a little difficult to capture well.)
Little Miss was also very pleased with her grown up sized hot chocolate and accompanying biscuits, so all were happy. Just a few doors away from the cafe we passed a lovely looking craft shop with what looked a workshop happening in the back room. How I would have loved a little potter around it but I knew I’d see far too many lovely things that I couldn’t realistically carry back on a bike in the rain, plus browsing is always a bit less fun with a ‘shop hating’ child in tow! So, we carried on cycling and passed a quaint little wool shop on the way back and once again I managed to resist. How virtuous I was that day!!
Crafty wise in the last couple of weeks, I have managed to do a few squares for my granny square blanket and have just enough squares for two rows. I was about to start joining them so that I could then add each new square at a time (I get a bit bored of waiting until all the squares are ready). But, then a thought struck me, I may have enough yarn left at the end of my granny stripe blanket to add even more colour into the squares blanket so I’m going to put it on hold for a bit and see what’s left. I’m so looking forward to seeing how bright and eclectic this blanket is going to be with a few extra colours added, the wait will be worth it, I’m sure.
I’ve made a little bit of progress on the granny stripe blanket but not as much as I’d hoped. I am really enjoying the mix of colours on this though and love working on it. Blankets worked in rows can seem to take an awful lot of time to do but I really love watching them grow a row at a time. Each time you add a new colour it changes the whole look and feel of the blanket. As usual with my blankets I have no particular plan, each time I finish a row I hold a few balls up to see which one goes best. I usually ask my long suffering hubby for his opinion and bless him he always has a look and tells me which he thinks looks best but I’m sure he really couldn’t give a monkeys which colour I use! Whenever I make cards I always make him look at and admire each and every one too, poor man!
My poor little solitary flower is unfortunately still alone, I still have lots of flowery ideas but they’re are going to have to wait in the wings for a little while as the granny stripe blanket seems to be calling me at the moment and I’m just itching to see it progress.
Until next time,
Happy crafting!
Karen X

Slow progress

It seems to have been one of those weeks where everything important that absolutely needed to be done got done but not an awful lot else. At the start of the week I had high hopes of lots of crochety progress on my two blankets and a vision of a delicious pile of flowers ready to be made into something gorgeous. Sadly, the dream didn’t quite match the reality.

I’m not quite sure where all the time has gone this week but I suspect that a fair few hours (well, it only felt like minutes!) went on searching google and pinterest for flowery ideas and a  few more hours may have passed whilst day dreaming about lovely crochet flowers and the beautiful things I was going to have made by the end of the week. Humph! Well, the week had almost passed with very little to show, bar 2 rows on my granny strip blanket and one (whole entire) square for the granny square blanket, so, come Friday I though ‘Right, the hubby’s out, child in bed by 7, the night is mine. I’ll start on the flowers and crochet a few stripes!’ Well, as often is the case, best laid plans went to rest and little Miss decided she was not going to bed without a fight. Now, she is very rarely a problem getting to bed as she loves her sleep just like mummy but poor thing had a tummy ache. Finally, after consoling her for the 6th time (each time requiring at least a 10 minute cuddle and a tuck back in!) and trying to snatch a bit of crocheting time between, I gave up and went to bed myself, only to be called another 2 times through the night. ‘Oh well I thought, all is not lost, she still has a nap in an afternoon and hubby is going to the gym on Sunday, I can grab a bit of hooky time then.’

 

Haha! not likely! Usually, little Miss naps every afternoon (we’re very fortunate not to have lost the naps yet even at the grand old age of 3!) but of course decided that today she was absolutely not having a nap and wanted to go for a walk instead! So, I dutifully took her for a walk in the puschair during which she did actually fall asleep. As soon as those sleepy little eyes gave up the  fight I scurried home as fast as my little legs would carry me. Little Miss is currently asleep in the hallway in her pushchair as I write but you can bet your bottom dollar that as soon as I finish writing and pick up my hook those eyes will ping open and Mummy once again will have to wait till bedtime. Its ok though, this evening Daddy will be here and woe betide anything that tries to stop me from my crochet time!

Granny stripe blanket so far

 

The pile of granny squares are slowly but surely growing. Almost enough for a row!

My solitary little flower, hopefully soon to be joined by lots of friends.

I am absolutely determined that this week will be much more productive and I’ll have a lot more to show you next weekend. Until then, have a fab week and I hope you get to spend some time doing the things that you enjoy the most.

Karen x

 

A perfect combination

I don’t mind admitting that, from time to time I struggle with anxiety. Its not something that I think should be secret or taboo and so I’m quite willing to talk about it. Sharing certainly helps me and if it helps anyone else too then its an added bonus.

My anxiety, rather strangely, often rears its ugly little head as the weekend approaches. Its not that I love work so much that I don’t want the week to end and its certainly not that I’m not looking forward to spending time with the hubby and little miss. Its just that sometimes I feel a little bit lost. I think its largely to do with the fact that, from Monday to Thursday I’m just so busy, my brain and my body work at 100 miles in an attempt to keep up with the workload. I work through most lunchtimes in an effort to get finished in time to pick up Little Miss from kindergarten and regularly have to multitask. So I think its often the case that, come the weekend, my brain searches for something to settle on and if we haven’t got anything planned it can result in me feeling a little bit lost and unsettled.

All day Friday I just couldn’t shake off these unsettled feelings. I walked little miss to kindergarten in the morning, met a friend for tea, pottered in the house for a bit and walked little miss home from kindergarten but still I couldn’t shake the funny little feeling in the pit of my stomach. I felt a little bit like a lost child ‘What were we going to do all weekend?’ We’ve got no family here and friends all had plans this weekend. The two days felt like they were stretching out in front of me like 2 weeks or 2 months.

The feeling only finally left me as hubby and I settled down to watch tv in the evening (hubby, very unusually for him fell promptly fast asleep) and so I lost myself in crochet for an hour or two. By the time I went to bed I felt absolutely fine again, my head buzzing with ideas of all the things we could do for the rest of the weekend.

As it happened, not having plans turned out to be just fine! Saturday and Sunday have ended up being a perfect mixture of all of the things I love to do the most. We have baked chocolate muffins, gingerbread men, made bread and soup, pottered about and played lots. We have been for family walks, went out for breakfast, I have been for a couple of long runs and had time to do a fair bit of crochet. In fact, now the weekend is almost at an end, I am, as always, wishing it had been longer. I have no doubt though, that the little anxious feelings will rear their ugly little heads again before long, but as always I will deal with them and send the little blighters packing again until the next time.

A few of my favourite pictures from the weekend…

See you soon for some crochet news,

Karen

Hats, hats and more hats!

 

These last few weeks I seem to have had a bit of a thing about making hats. A few posts ago I showed you the hats that I had made for my niece and our little Miss over the Christmas holidays. Well, since then, I carried on making hats, for me, for some of my colleagues at work and another one for little Miss (just in case she hasn’t already got enough hats). I haven’t put on photos of all of the hats I made as I, rather stupidly, forgot to take photos of a couple of them before I gave them away. D’oh! When will I learn?!

I think I may now be over the hat phase for a little while but I have maybe, possibly moved on to a flower phase. I have a growing urge to make lots of flowers and sew them randomly onto anything sewable in the house. I shall control myself, however and am currently growing a little seed of an idea that could incorporate lots of different flowers and give me the opportunity to practise making different types flowers and using different stitches and techniques. In the meantime whilst the flower idea grows in my brain I have begun 2 blankets. Why 2? Why not!! I’ll save the blankets for another post though. Watch this space…

 

Karen x

 

Edit: again, apologies for the upside down and sideways photos, something very strange seems to be happening with a box of allsorts pics at the moment. I shall endeavour to sort out the glitch!